• Merdeka, merdeka

    I once wrote here that sometimes I forgot about August 17, the (supposedly) Indonesia’s independence day had I didn’t checked my social media timeline and saw videos of folks doing the flag ceremony or kampung festivities.

    Why “supposedly”? Because I don’t think we ever truly merdeka. At least for now.

    Today, I wanted to forget about it, because I honestly feel that there is no point of celebrating something so hollow, so rotten, and so broken beyond repair. The land where gods and goddesses’ whispered their stories, hopes, and fears, is now imploded in real time as we speak. The guardians of the mountains, forests, and seas are receding away and the only thing left in the land of Indonesia is her people gasping and grasping for every single inch of hope, raising their helpless hands to the sky, with such frenzy eyes looking at the endless skies covered with smog and pollution, looking in such futile for signs of something big would happen and save us all here.

    I do wish I could scream curses and throw every thorn and spew hellfire from my chest, but I have been too angry, and the only thing I can feel is numbness.

    81 years old, Indonesia.

    Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature.

    — David Hume

    Might be useless or seemingly like screaming into the void, but I highly recommend these books if you want to know what happened, what is happening, and what will happen in Indonesia.

    Clockwise: The Jakarta Method (Vincent Bevins), The Killing Season (Geoffrey B. Robinson), Pretext for Mass Murder (John Roosa), From Jail to Jail (Tan Malaka), and The Invisible Palace (Jose Manuel Tesoro).

  • Another one for my arsenal…

    I once was this kind of person who looked at house cleaning videos and thought to myself, “what a difficult process and such tricky equipments! Who needs a water/wet vacuum?!”

    Let me introduce you to Hetch. Their full name is Hetch V10.

    So, since I became a full-time housewife (please don’t confuse me with a tradwife. I still love money, okay?), I found a new fixation on cleaning videos hashtag so satisfying. One day, I saw this video from China, a CCTV recording of a family sleeping in the master bedroom. The wife got woken up abruptly with a pained look and her hands over her stomach, and when she ran to, I presume, the bathroom, the husband got woken up too and realized his wife got her period and the blood leaked into the mattress. He took care of their young child, then he took off the bedsheets to replace them. Before he replaced the bedsheets, he took a small handheld vacuum, then pour a cup of what seemed to be liquid detergent and water, scrubbed it for a minute, then vacuumed the water from the mattress which now clean. The wife came back, looked much better, and the husband asked her to go back to sleep again.

    Of course, of course, in-between the praises to the husband, some questions popped: “WHAT VACUUM WAS THAT?!”

    I scrolled the comments section with frenzy, and I saw someone shared a link: “Might be not the exact brand and product, because the one on the video looked smaller and square-ish, but this is the only one I can find on Shopee. Size-wise, still okay kan? Not too big. Bukan macam industrial grade-vacuum. Suitable for personal houses.”

    If you are in Malaysia, you can click this link

    With the Indonesian spirit of “GASKEUN!”, I got the vacuum and I am so pleased to tell you that I finally got the opportunity to test it on my bed topper.

    AND YESSSS, IT WORKS AS PROMISED. The stains, unfortunately, have been around for quite some time, so I couldn’t clean it as best as I wanted to (also, not the vacuum’s fault. Cleaning out stains would be the detergent’s job), but maaaaan, the feeling of seeing the water sucked out along with the debris? Best thing in the world.

    Also, I just realized how dirty the bed topper is. I thought because I always use bed sheets, it wouldn’t be super dirty. I was wrooooong.

    EW.

    I’M SAYING THIS WITH THE SATISFACTION OF BILLION SUNS IN THE UNIVERSE BURNING THE ZIONISTS AND EVERYONE IN THE EPSTEIN FILES TO ASHES AND NOTHINGNESS: EWWWW. Duuuuude. Look at that! What a beauty! What a disgustingly satisfying result!

    Also, since I used vacuum, it took a relatively short time for the bed topper to dry and I can immediately change the bed sheets.

    Forget about the newest iPhone. THIS, my friend, if you are one of us, The Noble Cleaners, The Guardians of The Hearth and The House, The Knights of The Homestead, THIS is the best purchase ever.

  • Sunday breakfast

    I’m starting Sunday (today) with a slightly posh breakfast at the Swood Coffeehouse, hahah. Ari has been watching some IG Reels of steakhouses and since we shared a same brain cell for the past 15 years, we decided to go here. Swood Coffeehouse is a part of Swood Smokehouse, with the latter’s specialty, smoked meat, being part of both’s menu repertoire. On our way here, I just realized I haven’t wrote anything about this place, despite Swood Smokehouse being our go-to for our smoked lamb ribs and beef briskets, so here it is.

    You know that saying, right, “find something that you enjoy, as it helps you get through everything.” In my case, it’s breakfast. Just like how Animal Crossing: New Horizons helped me went through the time when my son got hospitalized for three months in the middle of the pandemic, breakfasts helped me looking forward to the next day when I was in one of my lowest points. I can confidently say that my mindset is better now, and as a bonus point, breakfast is still the most important meal of the day.

    My favorite type of breakfast is the warm and savory ones. Hence, not a big fan of overnight oats or cold cuts for breakfast. Even with sandwiches, if it’s cold, I usually approach them with a mix of 30-seconds “uggggggghhhhhh” and a sense of defeat. Also, coffee. Coffee is a must. I’m not an aficionado in coffee, but I need my caffeine boost (whether I need to fix my bedtime and reduce my doomscrolling, that would be for another time of discussion).

    I ordered for Puntang Black Honey latte. It has this nice bittersweet scent and taste, which I believe from the black honey roasting process. Fun fact, you can also buy roasted coffee in packets from them. If you haven’t decided which ones to buy, you can check their samples.

    For the meal, Ari got himself a Special Morning Breakfast. Think… English breakfast (your regular call of eggs, beans, and sausages), and add a couple of smoked beef briskets.

    Add a bit of spicy BBQ sauce here

    I got myself the Smoked Brisket Mushroom omelette. It was, uh, big.

    This is a jolt of protein in the morning, because inside the omelette, you will see smoked beef brisket, mushrooms, and spinach.

    I took a couple of pictures from the menu, specifically for the breakfast section, in case you want to check out their prices.

    Their location is tucked away from Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, specifically, at Jalan Liew Weng Chee. You can check Google Maps for more info here.

The Blogger

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